SIGILL (signal 4) on P3 using 2.2.x kernels: Problem: kernel 2.2.x doesn't have proper (working) SSE support Solution: upgrade kernel to 2.4.x Workaround: ./configure --disable-sse General SIGILL (signal 4): Problem: you compiled and run MPlayer on different machines (for example compiled on P3 and running on Celeron) Solution: compile MPlayer on the same machine where you will use it! Workaround: You can forget all this by configuring with the --enable-runtime-cpudetection option or you can disable particular CPU instruction sets with more specific options (like --disable-mmx, --disable-3dnow, etc). Crashes when dumping streams: Problem: core dump Solution: Don't panic. Make sure you know where your towel is. most common: buggy audio driver! - try to use different drivers, try ALSA OSS emulation with -ao oss, also try -ao sdl, sometimes it helps. If your file plays fine with -nosound, then you can be sure it's sound card (driver) problem. audio buffer problems (buffer size badly detected) Workaround: MPlayer's -abs option samplerate problems - maybe your card doesn't support the samplerate used in your files - try the resampling filter (-af resample=...) slow machine (CPU or VGA) try with -vo null, if it plays well, then you have slow VGA card/driver Workaround: buy a faster card or read this documentation about how to speed up Also try -framedrop bad file Workaround: -ni or -nobps option (for non-interleaved or bad files) and/or -mc 0 (required for files with badly interleaved VBR audio) and/or -delay or +/- keys at runtime to adjust delay If none of these help, please upload the file, we'll check (and fix). your sound card doesn't support 48kHz playback Workaround: buy a better sound card... or try to decrease fps by 10% (use -fps 27 for a 30fps movie) or use the resample filter slow machine (if A-V is not around 0, and the last number in the status line increasing) Workaround: -framedrop your file uses an unsupported audio codec Solution: read the documentation and help us adding support for it your file uses an unsupported video codec Solution: read the documentation and help us adding support for it auto-selected codec can't decode the file, try to select another using -vc or -vfm options First note that the options -fs, -vm and -zoom are not supported by all drivers. Plus, not all drivers support scaling/zooming in hardware. x11 driver: sorry, it can't be fixed now xv driver: use -double option mga_vid misdetected your card's RAM amount, reload it using mga_ram_size option.